The iPhone 5 event was already overloaded with content. They rolled out the iPhone 5, showed off a completely revamped Nano and Touch, and there was a brand-new dock connector that needed explaining. This in addition to the usual parade of data about how successful the Apple Stores and everything else are…and three songs from Foo Fighters.

My idle thought is this: if Apple were indeed planning to hold an iPad Mini event in October, do you think maybe they would waited until then to announce the revamped iTunes Store and the new edition of iTunes? They could have ended the spiel by saying “And both of these things are rolling out today” instead of “They’ll be available starting in October.”

The iPod Touch and Shuffle won’t be released until October, either. But preorders started almost immediately (so Apple could get a jump on holiday buying). It makes perfect sense for those products to have been included in the September event. But why the other two?

It just seems…odd…that Apple didn’t save them for an October event that was already locked and loaded, instead of adding iTunes and the Store to an already packed September 12 program.

Those two announcements were just as heavily overshadowed by the iPhone 5 news as they would have been by an iPad Mini unveiling. So it’s not like those products were better served by pairing them with the iPhone.

(The only solid explanation that’s occurred to me: Apple has to share advance information about the new Store and the new iTunes with enough outsiders that a leak was inevitable. Better to make an official announcement and get ahead of the leaks.)

I still have no firsthand info about concrete plans to release a smaller iPad, yea or nay. I’m just wondering if this “iPad Mini in October” rumor is as rock-solid as many people think it is.

Plus, just as a sailor knows that land is just over the horizon when he starts to see birds, I keep looking out for some specific Early Signs that almost always precede a major Apple announcement. I haven’t seen those yet. If I still haven’t seen them by the first week in October…hmm.